A while ago, I joked on TwitteraboutwatchingOre no Imouto with my older brother. At the time, I was very enamored with how Kirino makes her brother, Kyousuke, play eroge with her. [*] With each passing episode, I began to entertain the idea more seriously. Ore no Imouto is a lovely series that delves into different aspects of the otaku world. It would be the perfect thing to get him to understand a bit about my hobby.

So I watched Ore no Imouto with my brother.

And what an awkward mistake that was…
It was probably a bad idea to preface the viewing with a disclaimer: “This anime may seem like it’s about sibling incest, but trust me, it’s not… At least not really… I think.” Thus, with incest on our minds, we jumped into the first episode.

Immediately, we were greeted with a bunch of imouto-themed eroge played by an imouto. Things quickly went further downhill first with a grope scene in episode four, then Kyousuke’s fake confession in episode five. I had such a hard time explaining how that incestuous speech is supposed to help Ayase and Kirino make up. In fact, I still do not understand the logic behind the whole scene. Strangely enough, when I watched it alone, that part did not seem that awkward.

Luckily the next episodes went by more smoothly, albeit with some minor road bumps (Kyousuke’s date with Kirino and Kuroneko’s manga presentation). We even chuckled here and there. Yet, there is always this air of discomfort and distaste.

When it finally ended, my brother asked me, “Aren’t you embarrassed?”

Indeed, I was. Very much so.

The embarrassment stemmed not only from the hints of incest, but also from many other aspects of Ore no Imouto. A few episodes into the series, I had told my brother to pay special attention to Kuroneko, one of my favorite characters from the series.

This was his final thought on Kuroneko as the adorable nekomimi danced to the credits: “What the hell is she doing?”

Again, I had no answer for that.

Anime makes so much more sense when I watch it alone. Cat ears and paw hands are perfectly normal and endearing within the confines of my own fandom. Only when someone outside questions these common themes do I stop to think about how silly certain anime tropes can be. Things we anime fans often take for granted can be so incomprehensible to others and perhaps even to us at times. What – if anything – does that say about our fandom? And are we just plain weird?

Fortunately, the feelings of embarrassment quickly dissipated once I got back in front of anime and on blogs, Twitter, Pixiv, and image boards. Kuroneko and her nekomimi antics are still as lovely as always.
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Side notes:

My brother is awesome!

The post is more dramatic than the actual experience. It was not actually all that awkward.

Yeah, I think that was one of my first impressions when I first visited the site. Girl anime fans are very common, and based on the female friends that I have, they are starting to turn to watching more ‘guy’ oriented anime like lucky star and K-On!, so I don’t really think that it’s surprising. Besides, cuteness and YURI transcend the sexes.

well, after reading the post i also thought you were a girl.
Anyway the ankwardness seemed to me due to the weirdness of the anime antics your brother could not understand more than due to the incest theme.

There are very few anime that are worth showing to layman, but I think anything Miyazaki, Monster, or 5 cm/sec will be able to fit the bill since the entry point isn’t as high. Ore no Imouto was never going to be it since the exaggerations do go a bit too far and otaku aren’t exactly the most normal bunch of people either. Oh well, glad your bro was open-minded enough to give it a go though!

I thought I had laid enough foundation. My brother has seen anime before. He loved Miyazaki’s works and Samurai Champloo among others. Still, he’s hardly an anime fan. I guess Ore no Imouto is a bit much though. If he’s still up for anime, I’ll show him 5 cm/sec next time. Great suggestion! ^ ^

As an only child married to another only child, some anime such as this (and one we finished watching just hours ago, that really pushed the lines) make us both wonder, just what would real siblings feel watching things like these together. What would they make of it? But I must agree about Kuroneko. She pretty much made the show for me.

What it’s like to watch anime with my brother.
Sometimes it’s more fun to watch alone and sometimes the opposite. Sibling reactions depend on their preferences. So if you want to share something to them, you might want to get ready if you have an idea what their reaction would be.

Yeah… As much as I’ve thought there aren’t any excessive incest connotation in OreImo, there seems to be more than the usual fan service ^^; So umm… ya, I guess it does feel embarrassing watching it with your older brother. You can at least tell him that you aren’t as selfish and mean as Kirino… Or are you?? LoL anyway… joking aside. I’m so glad you didn’t watch Yosuga no Sora with him >.>

Ok, so I’m not an imouto and my brother will probably not watch this, but back then I did get him to watch some anime I really liked. So I was excited to show him this really awesome anime and hope he’ll like it too, but he didn’t seem to be as interested as I was. Maybe it was because of the R1 DVD release arrangement as opposed to the original showing, but to me it felt like I disappointed him. That anime was The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya… To this day, it’s probably one of the anime that I’ve seen multiple times and still get excited about. I guess our siblings just don’t have the same taste as we do. That’s all I can say =/

There probably isn’t really that much incest connotations, but I think when I prefaced watching the anime with a warning about incest, I kind of made both of us more aware of any slightest hints. Had I not said anything, it probably wouldn’t have been as apparent.

Oh gosh.. Yosuga no Sora. I can’t even imagine.

It’s unfortunate that your brother didn’t enjoy The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya as much you did, but I’m sure you two still share some similar favorites, even if not in anime. Thanks for sharing. ^ ^

i hate Haruhi and everything about her! She is so dumb so selfcentered that it does repels me so badly, that i coulndt last more then few episodes, and side characters are so plain. Oww i forgot about kyoun or what was his name he is so bad so weak, its just dissapointing.

It almost sounds like you’re describing Kirino as well, lol. Both are self-centered and selfish. Kirino may be a bit more shy at times, but quite mean towards her brother. The opinion towards Haruhi Suzumiya seem to be always polar opposites, so I respect your opinion and I’ll keep mine. Though I do agree that Kyon is weak, but he is the “normal” one after all.

Well i dont agree there is such a gap between kirino and haruhi, afterall Kirino is more aware of others then haruhi which is just haeing blindfold over her hagemony. Btw saying weak is normal is not normal, i see normal as being assertive, not weak without resolve character like kyoun, its just disgusting for me, thats why i hat many male leads in anime, lately they made a gay male lead. Thanks god that there are such characters us Lelouch, Akuto, and even Kirino brother.

The awkwardness if you watched Yosuga no Sora with your brother ^^;;; Yeah, he’s still the one who got me into anime in the first place, so we still have some common favourites. He just doesn’t watch that many anymore except for Ghibli movies… And he has all my Ghibli DVDs now *sigh*.

Me and a bunch of my friends actually watched Yosuga no Sora (separately, of course). It was quite a good show, save the incestuous themes and all those unnecessary things that they show (ahem ahem). The romance is quite tastefully done there, and since I’m an only child, the Sora arc didn’t really bother me that much. That being said, I still don’t approve of 3d incest (2d is in a gray-white zone).

I never had any success watching anime with non-anime fans, partly due to the current 90% over bodily expose boom in anime. That aside, I think generally one can not forces one’s habbit onto another. <- that statement can be apply to pretty much anything, lets just take collecting stamps, the collector feels joy and excitement when he/she discover new stamps whatever you have it, and blah blah blah, i think u get the point~

I rarely watch anime with non-anime fans. In fact, I never watch anime with anyone else other than my siblings in real life.

“I think generally one can not forces one’s habbit onto another.”
A very true statement indeed! But it’s still always fun to share, even if it is just one-sided. Plus, I can be kind of selfish sometimes with my older brother and sister. :3

This is a funny post. Well delivered I must say. I’m glad I didn’t watch OreImo with my bro. He watches it too but at a different time so we only discuss the funny scenes together. On the other hand, I never successfully drag my sister to watch any anime with me. I always try to introduce her some good titles but was rejected bluntly. She doesn’t know what she’s missing. Tsk. Tsk.

It’s nice you and your brother can talk about anime you both watched. That’s really awesome!

I think I have more success dragging my brother and sister to watch anime with me when I exchange favors. It’s kind of funny when I think about it, but yea. Most of the time, they just flat out rejects as well. Oh well…

This is why I keep all the funny shows that aren’t too embarrassing to watch with my brother. Simple stuff like Lucky Star or the usual shonen fight shows.

But this seems to happen to everyone who tries to watch this show with their siblings simply because what happens in the show is simply unfathomable in real life. How can one not feel awkward when watching that grope scene with his/her sibling? Surely the show will give off some wrong vibes about anime fandom all together. Anime likes to exaggerate things, like anime fans with over 9000 levels of fandom or incestuous situations like this one.

When I showed him the anime, I had just finished it. Perhaps it was recency bias, but I loved the anime. All those awkward moments felt insignificant compared to the good parts. But then once we go back to watch the earlier episodes, all the grope scenes, eroge, Kirino’s implied feelings were actually a pretty big part.

Maybe I should just stick to simpler stuff as you do. (Simpler as in those that don’t hinge on an understanding of common motifs in anime or play up certain mostly 2D fetishes).

“Anime likes to exaggerate things, like anime fans with over 9000 levels of fandom or incestuous situations like this one.”
Actually, I had a discussion with a friend the other day. Her thought – based on the limited anime she had seen – was that anime tends to be way too melodramatic. That’s why she didn’t like it. She does have a point.

I actually thought this series would be an incest series much like how Yosuga no Sora seemed to be at the start, but in the end i was surprised at how decent the plot was and believable the characters were. Seems like Oreimo will have multiple endings

These are pretty much the reasons I’m -not- recommending OreImo to my little sister. She picked up the hobby from me when I was watching Azumanga Daioh, and watches generally anything with comedy in it, but… well, this is one I won’t be recommending to her. The awkwardness would be painful. =/

Don’t a be a sissy and recommend it, in worst case u will become some kind of perv into wincest.^^ Anyway i wouldnt mind to recommend that to my sister yet she would just come with excuse that she doesnt want to watch.^^

For my sister its like she is more into books like she likes fantasy, sci-fi, criminals thrillers, even horrors, but if it comes to anime she wont watch it, so i just gave up on it, no point into forceing anyone, i even tried to use japan novells but hse wasn’t interested either, dont now the cause.

Just for kicks, I would like to give my answer to the skits that you mentioned made your brother feel disturbed, even though we all know the answer to their existence on the show.
The fake confession was obviously last minute thinking by Kyosuke. Basically he thought that is Ayase thought he was an even bigger freak than Kirino, it would give Kirino a reason to focus her rage away from Kirino and place it on Kyosuke instead, thus calming her current rage against Kirino. Sure it made no sense, but let’s not forget, the only logic that exists in anime is anime logic. So, we just had to roll with it.

As for the Kuroneko credits dance segment, it’s there…just because. There is no actual reason for its addition. If there WERE a logical reason (which there isn’t) for it being there, it’s because of Kuroneko’s name…that’s it. She danced like a cat because she’s technically dressed like a goth cat-girl.

We are animeniacs, we are weird since we became anime lovers. As you already know, we should be proud of our fascination, despite some bad rep it has received over the years. I have a feeling your brother knows all too well that anime are strange in general. He surely realized that those awkward scenes were in there because anime writers enjoy screwing around with non-animeniacs.

So yeah, as strange as it may sound, most things in anime have an explanation…exceptDokuro-chan, Space Thunder Kids and Garzey’s Wing. Those 3 shows have no explanation whatsoever as to their existence.

Thanks for the explanation. I suppose Kyousuke’s logic does make sense now you spell it out like that. But then again, when we’re talking here, things about anime and such always make more sense. The same goes about Kuroneko. As Ryan A pointed out below, it’s like we have our own language and our communication tools. And there’s a lot of charm in that sentiment.

As strange as anime is, my brother and I both had a lot of fun with Kuroneko despite what I wrote. He thought she was oddly curious, and I found her embarrassingly cute. It was a fascinating dynamic.

Kuroneko is an international icon and American heroine. we are not worthy of standing in the same area as she or her mini-nekos, since I noticed she has more than 1 imouto, or that was her mother, I dunno. In any case, if the OVAs have the same level of goodness that the anime had, then I demand more Kuroneko family greatness.

Yeah, I know referencing Americans with anime is a crime punishable with death, but sadly, I’m used to it for some reason. As long as you understand the fact that Kuroneko is a heroine among heroines, as powerful as Butterfly Mask from the Koihime Musou series, then I am happy.

Words cannot describe how funny the mental scene looks like in my head, as you describe your thoughts. You just made something that, in my opinion, is supposed to be locked inside the realm of fantasy, & turned it into reality.

I hoped you did not showed him any eroge (I hoped you did not play any eroge — I’m just passing by this blog, after stumbling upon it from IRC), which will turn an already creepy show, creepier.

But enough of the creeped-out feelings, I shall take on your question:

There are enough points within the anime fan/otaku circle that necessitates its “niche interests group” tag: glomping, squee-ing, fangirl/fanboy-ing etc. Most of normal people do not act in such behaviours in public sphere, which is why most stuff both you & I find “normal” isn’t actually “normal.” Do you hug your dakimakura in public? Do you drool over hawt x action? Do your knees go weak whenever you hear a seiyuu does a moé voice-over? (See Hanazawa’s role as Shiori Shiomiya in The World God Only Knows.) Do you get excited on that sensual illustration of Kuroneko? Do you get iffy about how your wig doesn’t match your intended cosplay?

So you can understand why outsiders don’t see the same “kira kira” “sparkling vampires” “stars shining” viewpoint as yours.

I feel for your brother, though: he could do other stuff instead of watching anime. If he is stumped by some of the terms/tropes used in an anime show, he already has a walking encyclopedia to refer to, in the form of you. :P

I may be really close to my brother, and we may kid around, but playing eroge with him is kind of on another level. I do actually play some eroge though, mainly yuri visual novels, but there is no way I will ever show him that.

Great point. Within our fandom is filled with very niche stuff that are novel to outsiders: seiyuu idols, Kuroneko, anime aesthetics. I suppose every hobby has its own list of oddities. It’s just that many others’ oddities are more well known/ acceptable. For example, consider basketball and the fans’ love for high-air dunks, flashy plays, and patronizing moves. It isn’t that different from our fascination with Kuroneko’s cat moves. Or from, as you mentioned, Twilight fans’ “sparkling vampires.”

I’ll continue to do my best to explain anime to him, if I can get him to watch another one. It probably won’t be for a while though after this. Haha.

Wrong… just so wrong. I felt embarrassed enough watching Imouto (at least the 9 episodes I made it through) on my own; to watch that show with someone else would be just too cringeworthy!

There were some very funny moments, but by episode 4, I just couldn’t pretend that there wasn’t a deliberate undercurrent of incest going on, even if the show would never admit it. It’s what made scenes like the “accidental” grope, “fake” confession and visit to the “love” hotel so awkward, it was always at the back of your mind, even when never explicitly stated. As someone who doesn’t buy into that crap, I found the series too uncomfortable to finish… that and Kirino was a complete bitch!

The problem with Ore no Imoto is a classic case of trying to have ones cake and eat it too. It tried to come across as a serious show about otaku culture, while at the same time exploiting tired cliches popular to that group. The classic harem angle for example, or the already mentioned incest. I guess you could say it tried to do too many things and never fully succeeded with any of them (the bakuman-esque episode that tried to depict how an anime is created was particularly lulz-worthy).

As for the random elements, particular to anime/manga, I guess that’s the main reason I choose to watch anime on my own, to the extent I pause it when anyone else comes into the room. There are too many things in anime that are just too odd to the untrained eye, like fanservice, which is likely to made you look like a perv to other people. On your own you get used to and even embrace the sillier stuff with fellow fans, but with people who don’t watch or “get” anime it will only lead to extreme awkwardness.

I guess I tend to hang in more laddish circles than perhaps your average anime fan, with most of my friends/family being into sports/drinking/clubbing etc, and my few attempts to share what I would view as more socially acceptable anime like Baccanno! or Studio Ghibli films has always been met with odd looks and distain. Trying to get one of my brothers to watch Eva with me years ago turned out to be a pretty bad idea all round as well… The majority of people are just never going to accept anime in a serious way.

Ultimately though things like that keeps me fairly grounded so I enjoy the weird stuff in my shows, while not get too invested by it in the real world, so I guess it’s not that bad :P

Haha, it certainly felt kind of wrong at times, but my brother and I had fun. ^ ^

Re-watching it a second time – and with someone else – I am reminded of the blatant incest undertones and the frustration Kirino causes. However, when I first finished the series, I liked it a lot mainly because of Ayase, Kuroneko, and the interesting premise/plot. I kind of just forgot how uncomfortable it could get at times. Hence, the recommendation to my brother.

I agree that OreImo suffers from trying to cut across too many themes, and it fails to integrate them all together. I did enjoy each element individually though, but these themes weren’t cohesive as a whole.

I think I kind of understand turning off anime when someone comes by. I did the same thing back when I lived with a roommate. I even set up my laptop such that she can’t see my screen. I tend to hand out with people who barely know what anime is too, so yea…

The oddities of anime certainly have their own charms, and I love them.

Am not sure Oreimo is really a series that’s accessible to people who’ve seen little ot no anime, it’s far too much of an otaku centered title and story.

Was looking forward to this series when they announced but in the end to me it was mediocre to good, but not as excellent as some claim it to be. Too many things just grate or brush you the wrong way in this series and I cannot to this day fathom the obsession and love for Kirino that the other characters or the fans have.
Kirino is so polarized as an abusive, violent, hateful girl towards Kyousuke and the others, her being labeled as tsundere and actually loving her brother but being as such to act out do not make sense compared to the level by which she abuses him. Who would put up with that and still be as supportive as Kyousuke? No one would.

It’s hardly accessible. There are just so many things that make little sense outside of anime culture.

I enjoyed the series quite a bit, but yea… It’s not as excellent as I expected after four episodes. Kirino also turned from an adorable girl to a frustrating brat pretty quickly. Luckily, we have Ayase and Kuroneko (plus Saori and others).

“Strangely enough, when I watched it alone, that part did not seem that awkward.”

HAHAHAHAHA I hear you on that, once you find yourself explaining things that are “unique” out loud they seem to begin to make less sense and seem less moving. My boyfriend watches lots of anime with me, but he is strictly a shonen/seinen type of guy that can occasionally enjoy slice-of-life if it’s Lucky Star. But when he is the room on his laptop when I’m watching one of my “other” series I think his presence definitely brings down my enjoyment. When I’m watching a series and beginning to enjoy it nothing makes me angrier than a chuckle over “how the hell can she be watching this”. He’s learned not to chuckle but I really can’t watch a series he isn’t interested in while he is in the room in complete comfort. I watched a lot of Bakemonogatari and Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei in front of him, both series that pained me to explain. This dilemma is actually probably a HUGE part of the reason why I progress through my “to watch” list so slowly. I end up watching all of my series in the summer when he has lots of activities that take him out of the house.

It seems we’ve all been there trying to defend the unique charming oddities of certain genres.

“how the hell can she be watching this”
My brother actually said something similar to me too when we were watching OreImo.

Nowadays, I try to keep certain series to myself, like Strike Witches and such. I can’t possibly imagine how to explain little girls flying around in panties. Well, best of luck to both of us and our backlogs. ^ ^

Since both me and my brother like anime we don’t have this kind of problem. We used to watch some animes together in TV when we didn’t have a good pc (first one had 1Gb of HD….), after we bought a better one we continued to watch. Some time later we stopped because our free time didn’t match more. Our tastes are diferent, i almost cry with the death of yomi in ga-rei zero, he probaly have said “whatever”.

If We have watched ore imouto together he would aks why i’m not so kawaii like Kirino (punch him).

Otherwise,my friends (university ones) don’t like this stuff, watch anime with them would be completely awkard. I prefer to watch alone in my room.

My brother and I have our differences in taste as well. He hated Railgun while I loved it. But we also share some favorites like Ghibli movies and Samurai Champloo. By the way, I cried when Yomi died… I liked her so much!

“If We have watched ore imouto together he would aks why i’m not so kawaii like Kirino (punch him).”
Tsundere? j/k

Most of the time I prefer to watch anime alone by myself too, especially for those that are more serious and atmospheric.

Whenever I try and watch an anime with someone else, the same thing occurs, where they start asking you “isn’t it weird that, that girl always fresses up as a cat?” or whatever else. And whenever they say stuff like that, I never really know what to say because I don’t think too much of it.
I try watching anime with others, but in the end, I just prefer to watch it all alone x)

Yea, I never really thought too much about why nekomimi and maid costume is such a fetishist combination, so when I got asked about it, I didn’t know what to say.
Actually, just the other day, my sister asked me about glasses girls when she saw Nodoka from K-On!! “What’s with all the underframe glasses? It’s ugly.”
Before that, I had never really noticed that about anime meganekko.

I mostly watch anime by myself (I prefer it actually). But every once in a while, it’s kind of nice to watch with someone else too to switch things up.

I think this is a great thing, especially that your brother spent the time with you out on a limb. My little sister and I used to watch anime (and some drama), but it never had this sort of potential for awkward. One thing I remember about my watches with her* is that when we encountered something strange but /normal/ in the context of anime, I didn’t even try to explain. I never had someone explain what/why things were in anime, and for the most part I think it speaks for itself.

With that in mind, maybe your brother thought it was weird, but what isn’t weird when it’s foreign; and I don’t simply mean ‘from overseas.’ Mediums have their own language imo, and anime has a very distinct language in both the presentation and fetish. Most people never come to understand or accept the presentation, but it’s hard to write something off as ‘weird’ simply because the communication channel isn’t functioning (does that make any sense)?

So, no I don’t think it’s weird or strange, it’s merely a lack of understand. Now, I do think there are some weird things within the genre, and in Japan, but I don’t think that has to do with misunderstanding the /language/.

Phew~

*she doesn’t watch anime specifically; I’m lucky to have family would doesn’t mind experiencing various media, so long as it’s not wasteful.

If we take out the incest stuff, OreImo may actually be a pretty good anime to expose others to different facets of anime (eroge, light novel, doujins) and how we satisfy our fandom (cosplay, figure collection, magical girl idol worship, fan fiction). Or so I naively thought. In the end though, I’m still glad we were able to enjoy something together.

Anyway, very true about how anime has its own distinct language. It gives credit to all those who say they have a certain fetish only in 2D (lolicon comes to mind first). Even the aesthetics of anime is in some ways a distinct communication tool that may seem incomprehensible to others.

As always, it’s a pleasure to hear your thoughts. And thank you so so much for sharing stuff about your sister. ^ ^

p.s. It really is nice to be able to enjoy something with family, right?

I’ve still to finish OreImo, but I do notice some distinct identity that relates to the everyday otaku. Maybe that gives someone who isn’t into the media a better look at the perspective, so long as they’re open to it.

Ore Imo has got to be one of those awful anime out there.Whichever blog I’d visit,it would review episodes of Ore Imo.So to check out of curiosity I started seeing it and hardly made it past episode 4 (and dropped it :| ) It’s not worth the hype it receives..
Just my opinion.
Earlier I thought Haruhi was over hyped but after seeing the movie my opinions chaned completely!You should give it a try if you havent!

I agree it’s over hyped, but I don’t think it’s very awful. There’s still some good in it.

Anyway, I need to watch Disappearance soon. I trust your opinions, and I think it’s going to be a really good movie.
I just keep delaying it because I’m still a bit mad about the Endless Eight arc in Haruhi season two. But I’ll get over that eventually.

haha that sounds like an interesting idea, at least reading this post was fun for me.
I can’t watch anime shows with my sister, even when we have a good relationship.
I think I would die from embarassment in every weird or slightly ecchi situations.
Well I could Imagine to watch shows like Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru with her, but then my sister isn’t used in reading subtitles at all ;(

“When it finally ended, my brother asked me, “Aren’t you embarrassed?” ”
Ouch, that comment is a bit mean :D thats the reason why I always watch anime alone, even though it sounds a bit sad. I would like to share my love for anime with someone else nearby, but such people are hard to find aside from the internet.
As you mentioned in your side notes Ore no imouto seems to be no show suitet for anime beginners, overall it wasn’t that good anyway ;)

At the very least, it was a fun experience, even if the themes and the ecchi situations are super embarrassing.

I tend to watch anime alone as well. Only on very rare occasions do I sit down with someone else to watch something. It certainly is hard to find anime fans whom you can sit down and enjoy something with… Especially anime fans who have similar tastes to you.

My older brother enjoyed his share of anime, but he’s pretty much grown out of it or as he says he’s “too busy” for them now. I wouldn’t even dare to mention OreImo to him, so I really commend you in that regard. I think your brother was pretty open-minded to even sit through the show with you. I don’t know a lot of people who are as into anime as I am. I remembered trying to introduce Gurren Lagann to one of my friends whom is more into anime than my other friends, but she didn’t really like it at all — she did like Toradora! when I introduced that to her though. So I guess that it really is a matter of taste.

As for trying to introduce a series to my brother, I don’t recall ever sharing any series with him — more so with my sister as she never appreciated anime in the first place and shares my parents’ opinion about it being cartoons for kids ~_~; and there being a huge age gap between the three of us doesn’t help much too. But I do know that my brother has probably played eroge (and I haven’t) ~_~; I guess not being as close doesn’t help sharing my hobbies with him too.

I do agree with a lot of the above comments that say, it’s still different when watching something alone and watching it with someone. I enjoy watching more when I’m by myself as well. ^^; Maybe it’s because we tend to feel a bit awkward when people don’t understand what do we enjoy in the series that we watch.

I think Kuragehime would be a nice anime to introduce how an otaku is generally because it’s something I can definitely visualize in real life. Then again, it’s up to someone’s tastes if they can fully appreciate it or not.

I would just like to add that I kind of envy that closeness you have with your siblings that you can watch series together. ^^ I can only see myself in OreImo when Kirino is bickering with Kyousuke. Haha.

My brother is pretty awesome. He’s not into anime, but if I beg enough, he’ll usually end up watching something with me. He actually liked Lucky Star, but hated Railgun and OreImo. I guess it does all depend on taste.

As for me, I’m fairly lucky that my brother and I are only one year apart, so we’re on often on similar wavelengths.

Anyway, thanks for the suggestion. I’ll get to Kuragehime sometime and then hopefully get either my sister or my brother to watch it.

Hehe, thanks for sharing your experience. I LOVE this post, bwahahahaha. Although I gotta say…what were you thinking??!!! OreImo is iffy even for a lot of casual anime fans. :P

For me, the only things I will watch with my wife, who isn’t a fan, is Ghibli fare. And some Mamoru Hosoda.

And you’re absolutely right about us accepting tropes and other ideas in anime fandom that others would find strange. When people talk about anime going mainstream, it’s helpful to be reminded that anime is far apart from western culture. I think about my first experiences (after childhood), watching Tenchi Muyo, and finding it extremely peculiar and strange, but addicting. It’s certainly a whole new world for one who isn’t familar with the medium.

I honestly think that Yi is a genius ^_^. Too bad I don’t have siblings to share my hobbies with. If I had one, he or she’ll probably be at the same level as me by now (though I don’t know about the eroge part).

@TWWK: I should have probably known better, but as is often with recency bias, I was extremely enamored with the show that I kind of overlooked/ forgot about the iffy parts. Hehe, luckily, we kid around enough that the viewing is actually pretty fun.

Ghibli is so awesome! It’s something you can recommend to anyone. I love Hayao Miyazaki’s works.

Great point about anime going mainstream. I think it’s still going to be a while before the culture gap can be bridged. Even harmless anime like Pokemon had Cardcaptor Sakura underwent major editing including banned episodes before they were aired on American TV.

Being the only frequent and habitual anime fan amongst my circle of friends, I’ve noticed that explaining yourself is quite difficult to outsiders — entry into the anime world tends to be a personal journey, and, although the cause of it might have been a friend’s meddling, it takes a certain bit of adventurousness to begin to delve into the database of anime-related elements (which are quite prevalent in your post: cat ears, imouto, incest) that us fans know so well.

That being said, anime that tries not to rely on its moe premises always seem to be the best gateway anime. In particular, something with very strong narrative.

Yep yep. It’s really difficult to explain certain things. Our familiarity with the media and its quirks is built up over time through experience. Well, hopefully I’ve begun my brother on taking his personal journey, although I highly doubt that.

Anyway, agreed about the ideal gateway anime. I remember actually showing a friend Samurai Champloo, and she loved it. She didn’t end up watching more anime after that though.

“Things we anime fans often take for granted can be so incomprehensible to others and perhaps even to us at times.”
You know… I think I just had similar kind of experiences today. ^^;

A few days ago, I made one of my friend that has retired from collecting/enjoying eroge follow my twitter account so I can contact him more easily.
Today he tweets that ever since he follow someone (my) twitter, his suggestion list sometimes filled with tons of eroge related twitter account.
Only after he tweets that, I realized how stupid I was. Σ(ﾟДﾟ)
Somehow I never realized before that my twitter account might are not suitable to be spread to every friend of mine.
I ended up embarrassed the first time I read his tweets.
I’m really glad that so far I only had asked 3 friends of mine to follow my twitter account.
I really really don’t want to imagine what would happened if I had invited all of my classmates and teacher. OTL

Oh gosh, that’s embarrassing. I can imagine the chill that went down your spine when you saw that tweet initially.

This blog and my email used to be completely open. I even promoted my blog to a few friends back when this was supposed to be a diary. Obviously, nowadays, the blog is a lot more risqué, so I keep my real life and my internet life strictly separate. I had a few close calls myself with accidental exposures.

Anyway, thanks a lot for sharing your experiences. It was a lot of fun to read someone else going through a similar thing. ^ ^

You’re welcome. ^^
Now that I am calmer, I think I should thanks my friend.
Although it was very embarrassing, at least so far I only had invited 3 of my classmates. (and now I won’t let that number increased unnecessarily)
Plus those three already sort-of knew about my collection beforehand, so it’s not really really big deal… I guess.

Though I would prefer if he alert me with any method that less embarrassing and more private than a public tweets. >.>”
…Now that I think about it, I guess I’ll stay in my tsun tsun mode and not saying thanks to him after all.

Lol i had funny situation if it comes to exposure, thou it was my little sister which was at that time 2-3, i was playing eroge, and she entered the room, thou it was rpg type, and my sister asks: why is she naked,(i went chaos at that moement, and it took me few sec to calmdown) so i responded that she forgot to wear her clothes. IT was so strange situation.^^ Thank god that kids are so willing to accept anything ><.

You are much more braver than I would of ever been. I am not sure if I would of watch that with my sister (if I ever had one). However, it was cool that the 2 of you can share anime and stuff like that.

I’m surprised that you actually chose to watch an anime about a very odd relationship between a brother and a sister … with your brother. I understand your claim about the tropes that only fans of anime can appreciate. However, this isn’t only for the anime community. It’s actually just about any culture that is different from others.

There was this 90s show about the Journey to the West that I really loved as a kid but I don’t watch it with my friends because they don’t really understand some of the tropes that belong to Chinese culture. That’s just one example.

Anyway, I believe that it’s just a cultural/nationality(?) separation rather than media separation that causes the self-conscious anxiety of noticing things that look stupid to other people. So, it’s more like you were more aware of the “odd” parts of Japanese culture rather than just anime culture. If you understood what I just said, then congratulations.

On another note, in order to convince people that anime is not “for kids” or “uncool”, you just have to show them Now and Then, Here and There.

Oh yea, certainly a good point. The cultural differences surrounding a show often stems from where it was made, and the disconnect I felt with my brother is a result of simply my better understanding of that culture. And as you said, this can be applied to many other stuff, including “Journey to the West” or even more mainstream media.

Anyway, I don’t think I’ll be recommending Now and Then, Here and There to anyone anytime soon. I did not like it much at all… Sure, it’s something to show that anime can have darker, more mature stories, but yea… I didn’t like it.

I am a man who enjoyed the sibling nature of the series as well as the depiction of anime fans (both as positive and negative). The series reminded me of my little sister, who god forgive me, can be a bitch at times but god knows I love her!

In the end I decided to show the series to my sister, so therefore I watched the first 3 episodes with her. I also got that strange awkward feeling. The incest lines were easy enough to pass over when I watched it alone, but once I was watching it with her suddenly those one minute scenes seem a lot longer than I remember. Funny stuff, huh?

I’m sorry you had awkwardness. But I think, really, those of us who love anime are pretty weird. I’ve said it many times in my life that if I can accept the things in anime as normal, I can accept anything as normal. Other people freak out and I don’t bat an eye. During my presentation on Japan in my Global Issues Honors class (semester long projects suck) I used a picture of Mana and was like “This is a man”. To me, totally natural. To my class? Well, guys were coming up and getting right up close to the board and asking me if I was sure.

Fandom makes senese to the fans. I embrace my weirdness.

And even though I haven’t watched Ore yet, I can already say I’d never watch it with my brother. If I had a brother. I wouldn’t watch it with my sister, anyway.

If I had a little sister and she asked me to watch a show about sibling incest, I’d be very unconfortable. I’m surprised that you decided to show your brother Ore no Imouto to help explain your interests. I thought it was more on the extreme side; I would’ve gone with something like Toradora. At least your brother didn’t get the wrong idea ^_^;

The funny thing is that I totally didn’t think the incest would be a big deal at all. It certainly didn’t feel like it was a significant enough theme when I finished it alone, especially compared to its exploration into different aspects of anime and fandom. Anyway, good thing he didn’t get the wrong idea! ^ ^

I also told my onii-chan to watch this. I stayed away while he was watching the first four episodes (or I guess until the accidental groping scene) because those are kind of awkward. Then I started butting in around episode 7. I thought it’s going to feel odd but actually it’s not. I’m happy to say that my brother and I just had a laugh trip because of this show.

Lol…great post. I giggled and laughed when you mention those awkward moments. And like some of the people here, after reading this, I thought you’re a girl. So your brother was willing to watch this with you? How nice, wish my sister would have done that with me….well maybe not…

As for the anime itself, I will only make my final judgments when the OVAs come out. It was overall decent for me so hopefully the OVAs will be better.

Haha, you should try to watch it with your sister. It might be a nicer experience than you expected.

I liked the anime. I thought it was a very solid, enjoyable show. I’m not so sure about the OVAs though. If they’re going to be alternative endings, I might not like them. Hopefully, they’re not going to make the series worse for me.

This makes up for the touhou post that struck me earlier, I can just see it now. The Irony opening by ClariS and then you and your brother in a parody of Ore no Imouto xD
Forgive me, that was too much
But for attempting that with your brother, you get from me, complete and utter solid respect =)

This reminds of the time I watched the first two episodes of Tactics with my cousin (who also likes anime, but not nearly as much as me). I had never noticed just how strangely erotic that show was until I felt the confusion and disapproval emanating from next to me…it didn’t help that my room set up at that time forced us to both be on the same bed…yeah, it was very awkward.

Yea, totally. When we watch things alone, all those embarrassing, “weird” things seem completely normal and mere afterthoughts. But once we become keenly aware of all the things–since we want the other people to like it as much we do–those things all come to the surface. :(

“it didn’t help that my room set up at that time forced us to both be on the same bed…yeah, it was very awkward.”
Loll. Fun!

p.s. I don’t think I’ve seen you around here before. Thanks for visiting! And I hope you enjoyed the stay~

JAJAJAJJA… Actually i didnt expect the girl blog. im no use to visit this kind of pages so i cant say much u.u(this is a new world i began this year); that happened the same xD. but i saw few animes whit my stepsisters. firts with the older(close to 3 years more) and the younger (close a year less) and its was a little awkwardfor the incest and that things jajajajaja. few times i thought how incomprehensible was the animes but i dont care…its funny xD.
but everybody must be care with who watch animes because few things can change after watched :P

This was a delightfully awkward read. It’s hard to explain to someone how a character wearing cat ears, a maid outfit and saying lines like 『お帰りなさい、ご主人様にゃ 』 seemed completely normal when you watched the anime by yourself. I think one’s whole idea of normal is warped a bit once they start watching anime. For me personally, I wouldn’t have it any other way. Thanks for sharing. （じゃあにゃ
-imi

Haha, delightfully awkward is a great way to look back on this experience. (Though probably just awkward when going through it.) I agree. Our sense of normalcy is definitely skewed when we start accepting all the tropes of anime, and I don’t mind it. It gives our entertainment its own unique charms and styles.

Thank you so much for reading and sharing too! I don’t think I’ve seen you around here before. I hope you enjoyed your stay! Cheers~ ^ ^

“Anime makes so much more sense when I watch it alone. ”
I think that is unfair. Anime is WAY to broad a category. Certainly, there are shows I don’t even admit to having watched, but other shows I loudly proclaim to friends about how they rival or even exceed the best ‘live action’ drama and action shows and movies.
I suppose it helps I’ve been doing socially awkward things for a very long time. I was playing pen and paper roll playing games in the late 70s, for instance. I’ve never been shy about telling people I’m a wargamer (also since the 70s). At work even today my dual screen monitors prominently display screen shots from some of my favorite anime (among other interesting things).
Having said that, Ore no Imouto is one of those shows I’d not casually bring up in conversation, even with some anime friends, unless I knew there was some common background on it. The problem is Ore no Imouto touches very hard on to many themes most of us usually consider limited to discussion “behind closed doors”.
Oh, and as for the question “what the hell is she doing” regarding nekomimi, the answer is simple, she still has the courage to act out her fantasy ;)

Yea, that was definitely an unfair generalization, but one made more for rhetoric. There are more than a few titles I am proud to share with my friends and extol. Miyazaki comes to mind among other favorites. But Ore no Imouto is not one of these. (Though admittedly, I enjoyed this…) Incest is taboo, and an anime that plays with incest is hard to explain.

I think we all have our socially awkward moments and hobbies. I don’t mind others finding out about most of them, and many of my friends know I watch anime “casually”. I think that’s just fine. ^ ^ And it’s kind of cool you like Warhammer. I think I never got into collectibles because I was tight with my money growing up. But I remember marveling at the glass displays of Warhammer figures and Magic Cards and other stuff at the local hobby store back in the day.

In any case, I knew what Kuroneko is doing—recording a NicoNico video if I recall. It’s explaining her fantasy and the whole culture behind cosplay and Chuunibyou that is a little more difficult, not that she owes anyone an explanation.

Anyways, thanks for reading, Cratex, and for sharing. I wish we could all, especially I, be a little more open about my hobbies. One day, I’ll get there. ^ ^ Cheers darling!

Had I not seen a someone post this on Twitter, then I would never had enjoyed reading this so much. You made my day, seriously you did.

I’m a huge fan of Oreimo, I think it’s one of the best anime I’ve seen and I just all around love everything about it. Yes the incest aspect of it isn’t really something accepted, and I’d never consider watching this with my sister (she’s older than me so that’s just…) but nevertheless I love this anime.

Anyways I thoroughly enjoyed reading this post and I’m glad I stumbled upon your blog. I’m following this one for sure.